Yashahya Brown, Ryan Jennings, and Taylor Cox NJ lit up the track with sizzling performances at Saturday's Coaches Hall of Fame Invitational at the New York Armory.
Brown, a senior at Washington Township nearly took down the NJ record with an electrifying 7.13 to win the boys 55-meter hurdles. That time places Brown, who won the hurdles at the Indoor Meet of Champions last year in 7.22, No. 3 in NJ history and the fastest in the nation this season. Only Cory Poole of East Orange (7.07 in 2017) and Sincere Rhea of St. Augustine (7.10 in 2019) have run a faster automatic time in NJ history than Brown.
That's not all. Brown also placed second in the 55 dash in a school record 6.44, No. 2 in NJ this season. Graham Houghton of Pingry is the state leader with the 6.43 he ran to finish first at the Bishop Loughlin Games on Saturday.
In the girls competition, Jennings and Cox both ran NJ No. 1 times.
Jennings, a junior, placed second in the 55 dash in 7.04, which is No. 6 in the country so far this season. Jennings, who came into the meet wit a PR of 7.25 from last year, made the final by running 7.16 in the trials. Elise Cooper of McDonough in Maryland won the race with a US No. 1 time of 6.95.
Cox, In a red hot showdown in the hurdles, took over the state lead with a US No. 2 winning time of 7.95 to edge Kassidy Hopkins of Bullis in Maryland, who was second with a US No. 3 time of 7.99. Cox came close to her personal best and NJ No. 5 all-time of 7.88 that she ran to win the Meet of Champions last year.
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